Searching for London
by A. Windsor
Summary: Formerly 'London Calling' The Lost World Plateau has just gotten used to Isabella Roxton, is the rest of the world ready for the fiery teen? Sequel to Still Searching and Searching for that Happy Ending.
1. A Dirigible?

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's The Lost World. However, I do own Isabella Roxton, Layton and Jane Malone, Nathaniel Woods, Jacobi, and the hired help in the Roxton house. I may or may not own others in the story. To be on the safe side, anyone you don't recognize is most likely mine.  
  
Author's Note: Hey guys! I'm back once again with the third installment of Isabella's story. This one picks up about a year and a half after the events of Still Searching, in which Isabella finally found her happy ending. It is the Plateau, however, and things cannot stay perfect for long. The chance the older explorers have been waiting for for a lifetime has come and it is rocking their children's worlds.  
  
"Look at this," sixteen-year-old Isabella Elizabeth Roxton sighed, surveying the town of New London that she had come to call home over the years. "It's so lovely, Layton."  
  
She wore a soft blue sundress that almost matched the nearly blue gray of her eyes and her skin was pleasantly without a scratch and lightly tanned from her life in the Lost World. Looking at her, Layton Malone could almost forget that a year and a half ago she was a bruised and battered little girl. None of that sadness lingered over her any more. Isabella was a bright, beautiful, and charming young woman, and she was his, sometimes.  
  
"You are," the fifteen year old smiled, not even looking at the scenery she was pointing to.  
  
"Oh Layton," she laughed and kissed his cheek briefly, "Always a charmer."  
  
Layton may have been a year younger, but when she had stopped growing at fifteen he'd kept growing and was still growing. Already he was a head taller than she was and his once lanky frame was filling out with muscles earned from chasing Isabella all over the Plateau.  
  
He placed an arm around her waist. "We better head back. Our parents will wonder where we have been off to."  
  
"Okay," she relented, smiling exquisitely.  
  
Layton leaned in for a kiss, but she ducked out of his arms playfully. Lifting her skirt she took off, turning around to grin and wink at him as she ran. He laughed and took off after her, racing her back to where their horses were tied. They were close enough to the town that horses weren't necessary, but they decided their mounts had needed a good run.  
  
Isabella won, mostly due to her head start since Layton was just as fast, if not faster, than she was. Regaining control of her breath, she swung up onto Riptide as he mounted Abby. She kneed her gelding to come along side his mare.  
  
"I guess you'll be wanting that kiss," she teased, leaning in to press her lips lightly to his.  
  
Riptide stirred and walked forward a few steps, nearly making his mistress fall off and pulling her from her lip lock.  
  
Layton laughed, his blue eyes bright with merriment. "I don't think he likes me kissing you."  
  
"You weren't," Isabella ribbed, turning Riptide back towards New London. "I was kissing you."  
  
"Yes, ma'am," Layton sighed, kicking Abby after her with a contented beam on his face.  
  
They rode through the meadows of the clearing and were approaching the peak of the hill to head down towards the hamlet when the rumbling began. The horses started to spook, but the young riders had enough experience to easily settle them down.  
  
"Thunder?" asked Layton.  
  
"No, there is barely a cloud in the sky, besides those at the edge of the Plateau."  
  
"The prison wall, as your mother calls it."  
  
"Right. So what is it? A really gigantic dinosaur? This close to New London?"  
  
"I doubt it," Layton said rather distractedly, edging Abby to where he could see over the entire valley. His eyes widened in surprise as he saw the large balloon-like structure rose from the valley floor. "I'm guessing that's it, Bella!"  
  
"No, really, Layton?" Isabella yelled back sarcastically, calming her horse.  
  
"Hello, Mr. Malone, Miss Roxton!" a very familiar voice called from the rising vessel.  
  
"Professor Challenger?!" Isabella nearly screamed to be heard over the roar of the craft's engines.  
  
The white haired, time worn, kindly face of George Challenger appeared from the doorway of the cabin area of his newest creation.  
  
"Professor! What is this?" Layton shouted.  
  
"A dirigible, Mr. Malone!"  
  
"A what?!" Isabella questioned.  
  
"Our way home, Isabella!"  
  
"Home, Professor? New London is just down the hill. We don't need this thing," Layton countered, a confused look appearing on his face.  
  
"No, Layton, my boy, not New London. The real London!"  
  
Both children stood in shock, their eyes wide in surprise and puzzlement.  
  
"Go tell your parents that they are going home! Nathaniel and I are taking this thing on a test ride."  
  
Nathaniel Woods, Isabella's young charge, stuck his reddish blond head out next to the professor. Over the past year, the seven year old had become the professor's young apprentice, learning everything he could and assisting him in his experiments.  
  
"Hi Isabella!"  
  
Isabella merely waved and smiled lightly as the airship set off towards the south.  
  
"Well, if that isn't an interesting turn of events," Layton remarked when the droning had died down.  
  
"You can say that again. Let's go get our parents." She triggered Riptide into a canter and hurried her way back to New London.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Good afternoon, Lady Isabella," Charles, the stable boy, greeted as he caught the reins Isabella threw at him in her hurry.  
  
"Charles, could you take Abby as well for a bit?" Layton asked the thirteen year old as he trotted up behind Isabella, who was now dismounting.  
  
"Of course," Charles answered kindly, taking a hold of the mare's bridle and gently stroking her long nose as Riptide stamped impatiently. It was easy to see that the horses were matched to their riders' temperaments.  
  
"Thank you!" Isabella called over her shoulder as she jogged up to the Roxton home.  
  
Layton clapped the boy on the back and took off after her.  
  
"What are you doing back so early?" her mother asked as Isabella plopped down next to her on the couch in the sitting room and dropped a kiss on her cheek.  
  
"Professor Challenger stopped us out on our ride."  
  
"In what?" Marguerite Roxton questioned of her nearly grown up daughter.  
  
"A dirigible," she said rather calmly, waiting for her mother's response. Lady Roxton's gray eyes widened in surprise, looking over to Layton to confirm the story. Layton nodded with a grin.  
  
"That was the surprise your father has been talking about! Supposedly the Professor was planning for it to be done a year ago."  
  
"Nathan-boy said they had trouble finding parts for whatever the Professor's newest invention was, but he wouldn't give any details," Isabella mused.  
  
"This means we're going home," Marguerite observed in a hushed, awed voice.  
  
"But, Mum," Isabella started, "I am home."  
  
Marguerite stopped and gave her daughter a rather confused look.  
  
"But Isabella, it's London! We can take you to Paris and Madrid and Rome. All over the rest of the world. There is so much more to the world beyond those damned clouds."  
  
"Shanghai?" Isabella questioned with a light grin as she began to realize the potential of getting off of the Plateau, if only for a little bit.  
  
"Well, I don't know about that," Marguerite frowned then continued with a smile, "But maybe Hong Kong."  
  
"Professor Challenger said to come tell our parents," Layton hinted to Isabella that he wanted her to come with him to his house.  
  
"I'll tell John, you two go get Ned and Veronica. Bring them over here. This calls for celebration."  
  
The teenagers nodded and took off in the direction of the Malone household.  
  
~*~*~  
  
"Wow, George, it's huge. Does it fly?"  
  
"My dear Marguerite, of course it flies! How did you like it, Nathaniel?" George Edward Challenger sounded rather offended.  
  
"It was so cool, Uncle John!"  
  
"I believe you've been spending too much time with Finn, Nathan-boy," Lord John Roxton smirked at the young boy.  
  
Nathaniel wrinkled his brow in question but everyone just laughed and went back to looking over the airship.  
  
"How did you get the cabin so large, Challenger?" the always inquiring Ned Malone asked.  
  
"I used the same principles of a normal airship and just increased the proportions. There was a lot of tweaking."  
  
"A lot!" his apprentice echoed.  
  
"But how did you hide something this large from us? And for so long?" Ned's wife Veronica questioned.  
  
"Obviously all of the clutter you called junk in my lab was serving a purpose," Challenger responded.  
  
The adults laughed and kept talking about arrangements, boring the four younger members of the group. Isabella motioned for Layton, his little sister Jane, and Nathan to follow her. She walked around the tethered blimp, surveying its size and make before hopping into it.  
  
"Nathan, show us around," she commanded, though gently. There was no question she had long been the leader of this group.  
  
Young Mr. Woods made a proud show of the cargo bay and bench seats against the walls around the passenger compartment in the aircraft he had assisted in building.  
  
"How many people can you fit, Nathan?"  
  
"Professor Challenger says it is de-de-," he struggled for the word his teacher had used. "Dependent! Yeah, dependent! It's dependent on how much stuff we bring."  
  
Isabella nodded musingly, surveying her surroundings and seeing a door towards the bow of the dirigible. "What's that Nathan-boy?"  
  
"Isabella, what are you thinking?" Layton murmured in her ear, seeing the look she was getting in her eye which meant she had a plan.  
  
"How much fun I'm going to have torturing you by not telling you what I'm really thinking?" she smirked, winking at him.  
  
"That's the cockpit, Bella," Nathan answered her question.  
  
"What's in the cockpit?" eleven year old Jane Malone queried.  
  
"The pilot's buttons and levers. And the steering wheel," Nathaniel responded, enjoying the attention he was receiving and how smart he sounded.  
  
"Can we go in?" Isabella asked taking a step towards the door.  
  
"No, no, no," Nathan's baby blue eyes widened in fear. "We're not allowed in without an adult. Too dangerous."  
  
Isabella sighed, but didn't want Nathaniel to get in trouble.  
  
"Okay, Nathan-boy, I won't go in. We might as well go. C'mon, Jane-dear," she called to the younger Malone who had wandered towards the stern.  
  
Jane raised her blond head at her name and joined the group. Isabella jumped out first, surprising the parents who hadn't realized they had wandered off. Layton handed Jane and Nathan down to her before dropping beside her.  
  
"So, how was it?" Finn asked. "Pretty cool?"  
  
Nathaniel giggled. "Yes, very cool!"  
  
Veronica rolled her eyes at the antics of the baby sister in their "family". "Does it look comfortable?"  
  
"It'll do," Isabella responded, a tiny air of disdain in her voice.  
  
Roxton laughed out loud. "Her mother's daughter."  
  
Marguerite hit Roxton's arm.  
  
"Here, I'll give the adults the tour now," Challenger announced, "Since Nathaniel already gave it to the children."  
  
"Are you sure you don't have that the wrong way around?" Isabella quipped.  
  
The adults started into the airship, all except Veronica.  
  
"Are you okay, Mom?" Layton asked, walking up behind her and laying a hand on her shoulder. He towered over both his mother and father and no one was quite sure where he got his height from.  
  
"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. This is all just a little sudden, you know?"  
  
"You don't want to go," Isabella read through her.  
  
"I have the Plateau to think about. I've never really wanted to get out of here. I thought they had stopped trying to get off."  
  
"Professor Challenger says we can come back if we don't like it. Don't you want to meet Uncle Ned's parents and family?"  
  
Before Veronica could answer Isabella, the adults returned from their tour.  
  
"Veronica, you should see it in there! It's humongous! Plenty of space for people and the luggage," Malone exclaimed to his wife, who offered a forced smile.  
  
"I agree with Isabella, not exactly a luxury liner, but it will do," Marguerite commented, joining the other two Roxtons.  
  
"That's what we expected, Marguerite," John teased, ducking behind Isabella to dodge her smack this time.  
  
"You two are becoming more alike every day," Finn laughed, motioning to mother and daughter Roxton.  
  
Isabella wrinkled her nose. "I don't want to be like her."  
  
"Isabella!" Marguerite cried in disbelief. Unlike Lord Roxton, Isabella did not get as much playful physical retaliation; she was still a little hand shy when it came to things like that. "You're as bad as your father."  
  
"I don't want to be like him, either," Bella giggled, running off in the direction of New London.  
  
Layton, Jane, and Nathan followed suit and ran after her.  
  
"She's in quite a mood," Challenger commented.  
  
"Back to her old playful self, in some ways," Roxton replied, "She doesn't have nearly as much to worry about any more." 


	2. Right on Schedule

"I don't know, I think being Isabella would be a pretty nice deal. She goes to school Monday through Friday. Monday afternoons she spends lounging on the Inland Sea beach with Layton and Cobi fawning over her. Tuesdays she spends riding that horse of hers around the surrounding hills. Wednesdays are fencing lessons. Thursdays are Nathaniel's days, sometimes spent in Challenger's lab but always all about Nathan. Fridays she heads over to the Zanga village and spends the night, coming back Saturday nights with Cobi for church on Sundays. Cobi stays for the Monday swim and the cycle repeats. Very little deviation. And she's happy. And no one wants to mess with that any more."  
  
"Except us," John sighed, taking a seat on the couch next to his wife. He held a drink in his hand and was sipping it slowly as he considered her words carefully.  
  
Lord and Lady Roxton had been discussing their daughter for the last few minutes. It was Wednesday night and Isabella was off at her fencing lesson. All day she had been hiding her anger and sadness about her upcoming displacement beneath smart quips and charming smiles. Worst of all, she paid little attention to any instructions they gave her. Misbehavior had only been a problem when she was younger, but she was regressing to her old ways quickly to mask her betrayal.  
  
"You tried to bribe her, didn't you?" John smiled, laying his hand on top of Marguerite's.  
  
Marguerite broke a small grin. "Old habits die hard. She only pretended to buy it."  
  
"Part of her bought it, I'm sure. Traveling around the world is such an appealing offer, especially with you."  
  
"Sorry, no boys allowed," Marguerite teased, brushing a light kiss across his lips. "Part of the bribe."  
  
"Think she's overdosing on her suitors?" Roxton's grin matched that of Alice's Cheshire Cat.  
  
The overprotective father of a sixteen year old girl had taken awhile to get used to the idea of Layton and Cobi's competition for his beloved daughter's favors. He still was uncomfortable with the idea, but Marguerite had assured him it was innocent.  
  
"No such luck, John. No matter what she ever says, she loves the attention."  
  
"She's her mother's daughter."  
  
"I'm worried about her," Lady Roxton said softly after a few moments of comfortable silence. "What happens when we reach England? At least here we can keep a semblance of control over her. If she's still angry, she has so many opportunities to get into trouble she's not even ready for."  
  
John nodded knowingly. Growing up on the Plateau, Isabella had been exposed to many dangers that most children would never encounter. But the real world was a different place, where things were not quite as innocent as the Lost World.  
  
"Mum! Dads! I'm home!"  
  
Henry greeted her at the door with a smile and a "Good evening, Lady Isabella" as he took her bag from her.  
  
"What are you two up to?"  
  
"Talking about you," her father smiled.  
  
"Nothing too bad, I hope." Her smile matched her father's perfectly and her gray-blue eyes were alight with playfulness.  
  
"No, no, not too bad," her mother assured her.  
  
"I'm going to go see Nathan and then go to bed. Jean-Paul really worked me hard today."  
  
"Why's that?" Roxton asked.  
  
Isabella shrugged. "I guess he wants to cram as much as he can into me before I ship off to England."  
  
"Isabella, about that." John tried.  
  
"I don't want to talk about it right now, Dads. I'm not nearly as upset as, say, Aunt Vee."  
  
"Whatever do you mean by that?"  
  
"She doesn't want to go," Isabella said simply, disappearing from the room as quickly as she'd come.  
  
"Isabella! Come back here right now and explain yourself!" Roxton roared.  
  
~*~*~  
  
It was Thursday, Nathan's day and his alone, and they were visiting Challenger in his lab before setting out to take a walk through the Summerlee Memorial Botanical Gardens to discuss Nathaniel's day.  
  
"How were classes today, Isabella?"  
  
"The same, Professor. You are sorely missed in the science department. Professor Morgan is so boring! More than you were!"  
  
"I'll take that as a compliment," Challenger chuckled. "And your better subjects. History, Composition and Literature? How are they?"  
  
"Literature is the same as usual; we're in the middle of Homer at the moment. Wonderfully written but erring on the side of overly verbose. Composition is easy enough; the rest of the students aren't on my level of writing but I enjoy it all the same. Writing is completely freeing and Malone gives me all the extra help I need. And History, well, history is as interesting as ever. I pity Layton, though. He's in the year when Professor Young loves to ramble for hours about the Greeks and Romans."  
  
"Those ramblings, young lady, are more often called educational lectures." A gentle, affectionate smile crossed the old professor's face. This girl had always been as a granddaughter to him; in fact, he'd delivered her himself.  
  
"Same thing," Isabella grinned, placing a hand on Nathaniel's shoulder. "Professor, I have a question."  
  
Sensing the more serious tone of her voice, Challenger looked up from scribbling the data from experiments.  
  
"Yes, Miss Roxton?"  
  
She took a deep breath. "I was wondering if there might be some extra room for another passenger on the airship."  
  
George grinned. "Indeed there is. In fact, a good amount of room cleared up while you and the others were in school today."  
  
"How so?"  
  
"We lost three passengers. Ned, Veronica, and Jane Malone are going to wait here for the return expedition."  
  
"They're letting Layton go alone?" Nathan asked.  
  
"Yes, they are. 'Entrusting his care to the Lord and Lady Roxton' was how I believe it was said. We now have three empty seats."  
  
"Oh, Professor!" she cried in delight. "May I fill them?"  
  
Challenger sighed. "Who do you have in mind?"  
  
"Edythe, Henry, and Cobi."  
  
Pausing to think for a moment, he replied. "Wise choices. With the proper consultation I believe they will be fine. Let me get back to you about that before you leave for the Zanga."  
  
"Yes, of course, Professor!"  
  
~*~*~  
  
The slamming of her books upon the kitchen table echoed through the entire house. Every one present in the house quickly made his or her presence indistinguishable.  
  
"Isabella," Layton Malone tried to sooth her, his voice as gentle and pacifying as possible.  
  
"Don't 'Isabella' me, Layton! I am not in the mood at the moment."  
  
"It was just a joke, Bella."  
  
"Well, I didn't appreciate it," Isabella huffed.  
  
"It was juvenile and stupid."  
  
"You can say that again," she cut in hotly under her breath.  
  
"But it was just the boys and I messin' around as we kicked the football around. Nobody meant anything by it."  
  
"No matter what you, Cobi or any other boys on this Plateau think, I am not a prize to be won!"  
  
"Bella," he sighed. "No one thinks that."  
  
"Go home, Malone. I'll see you in church on Sunday," was her cold reply as she turned her back to him and stalked to her room to begin packing.  
  
"Fine, Roxton! Maybe you will!" Layton called back to her before grumbling a few things under his breath and stalking in the other direction.  
  
"Pressure's getting to her," Edythe commented to one of the kitchen maids as they all returned to their chores, hearing the young mistress of the house slam her door. "She hasn't yelled at the poor Malone boy like that for a very long time."  
  
"Perhaps she's going to miss this place as much as it will miss her."  
  
Author's Note: This one will be a lot longer than the previous two, so hold on for the ride! Don't forget to press that handy-dandy review button. 


	3. Saturdays

Author's Note:  
  
As you've probably noticed, there has been a title change so it fits in better with its two prequels, Searching for that Happy Ending and Still Searching. Isabella is at the point of almost annoying me. But I think that's the point. Needs some sense slapped into her... Well, not literally.  
  
Anyway, it seems that many readers are confused as to the setting of the story. In the first story of this trilogy, Searching for that Happy Ending, Isabella tells of the move of her tree house family to the small town of New London, very similar to England's London, though very small and stuck in about the year 1915. Isabella was about two and a half at the time, Layton a little over one and late Jack Roxton just a few months. The Roxtons have a large house on the outskirts of New London, while Finn, Challenger, and the Malones all have row houses on New London's main road.  
  
I hope that cleared some stuff up for y'all. (oh, no, my Southern culture is showing through...)  
  
~*******************************~  
  
It was Saturday morning and like most Saturday mornings, Layton Malone was amazingly bored. And today's boredom was compiled with his lingering anger and resentment from the previous day's argument with Miss Roxton to create his foul mood. Sweet little Jane-dear had tried twice to rouse him from this mood but had failed miserably and sulked from his room, her chipper mood another casualty of Arthur Layton Malone's bad temper.  
  
There was a knock at the door.  
  
"Come in," he grumbled, tossing his baseball against the wall.  
  
"Your mother says to get out of the house," his father told him as he stuck his head through the door.  
  
"Where am I supposed to go?" Layton asked, keeping his eyes locked on the wall in front of him as the ball went back and forth.  
  
Ned reached out and grabbed the ball, forcing his teenage son's attention to shift to him.  
  
"I don't care where you go, Layton, just stop moping and ruining everyone else's day."  
  
"Why don't you just send me away early? I mean, if I'm so annoying then, no wonder you want to ship me off with the Roxtons.  
  
"Layton, we're not sending you away. You're free to stay if you want. We just thought you would want to go with Isabella."  
  
"You're right, but that's not the point, now is it?"  
  
"Go get some air, Layton. Cool down, take a break, think things over. Maybe Nathan wants to play catch or the boys have a rugby game going.  
  
"Okay," Layton begrudgingly agreed. He grabbed the ball out of his father's hand and shoved it in his pocket.  
  
"And if you see your sister, you owe her a sincere apology."  
  
Layton shrugged his lanky shoulders and walked out of the door.  
  
Outside it was a beautiful, clear day with the warm Plateau sun making him very comfortable in his light shirt and trousers. He walked along the main road with his hands in his pockets and his head hanging down. Nathan and the younger boys played football in an empty lot and their loud shouts filled his ears as he passed by.  
  
"Layton, want to play?"  
  
He shook his head and kept going.  
  
Further down the road, his classmates sat on his friend Alex's porch swapping jokes and stories.  
  
"Hey, Malone! You're just the bloke we're looking for. We need to make it even. How about a game of cricket?"  
  
"Sorry, baseball's more my game," he responded, removing the ball then tossing it up and replacing it.  
  
"Oh, chaps, forgot Malone's an American," one of the guys from Isabella's grade said, drawing laughs from the group.  
  
"Not American, just the son of some. We're all Plateau-born here."  
  
The young men chuckled and Layton passed by.  
  
Somehow he found himself at the Roxton stables. There were usually five horses in the stalls, Layton's own Abby, Bella's Riptide, the Lord and Lady's mounts and Maximillian, the stallion Isabella and her father had recently acquired from native traders. The wild mount was currently being trained to be Nathan's eighth birthday present. Now the building seemed strangely empty since Isabella was with the Zanga and her parents were out riding. He went to Abby and stroked her long snout.  
  
He heard familiar giggles and patted Abby goodbye, searching for the source of the laughter.  
  
"So the stallion comes around the bend over there, crazy and wild, kicking up a whole cloud of dust. Lady Isabella is just laughing and laughing as the Lord is holding on for dear life. Since neither of the ladies of the house were keen on helping Lord Roxton, I grabbed Max's reins and stopped him. Unfortunately, Lord John went flying, right into that mud puddle over there. He roared and Lady Isabella nearly fell off that fence post you're sitting on," Charles Myers, the stable boy, told his story to a very welcome audience of Jane Anne Malone, who's bright blue eyes laughed with gaiety. Charles leaned against his shovel which was thrust into the ground as he took a break from clearing the paddock, pointing to each part of the field mentioned as he told the story.  
  
"What happened then?"  
  
"Lady Isabella got pulled into the mud puddle with her father," Charles smiled broadly. He seemed to be treading lightly around the young lady. He'd been taught throughout his young life that ladies in the upper echelon of society were to be treated with the utmost care and he was a polite, well-trained boy. While the Malones were not of noble blood like the Roxton family, in their little town of New London they were revered as such.  
  
Jane laughed as she threw her handful of grass she'd been twirling at the older boy. The blades got stuck in his dark hair and he lost all sense of propriety. He returned a volley of straw which caught in same colored curls. She scoffed in indignation, placing her hands on her hips. This action sent her tottering off balance and she began to fall from her perch. Layton ran to catch her, but, dropping his shovel, Charles beat him to it. He caught her in his outstretched arms, stumbling a little before he gently set her to her feet.  
  
"Lady Jane, you must be more careful."  
  
Jane's resulting blush reached through her whole body. Layton couldn't help but laugh. Her sweet face turned lethally angry as she now saw her brother.  
  
"Arthur Layton Malone! You were spying on me!"  
  
Her arms crossed over her chest and her boot lightly tapped the soil. It was apparent Jane had learned everything about being angry from Isabella Roxton.  
  
"I wasn't spying!" Layton cried back in objection. "You were laughing loud enough for the whole town to hear. I was in the stable with Abby."  
  
She simply humphed in response. Charles was doing his best to look as small as possible. Layton's mood was lifted a little so he smiled at the boy. He remembered being a thirteen year old boy. In face, it had been then when he'd made the deal with Cobi to compete for Isabella's love, a competition that had landed him in the argument he'd had with Isabella the day before.  
  
Isabella... Right now Cobi was probably making her smile in a way he had failed to produce from her lately. Or worse, kissing her...  
  
He shivered with jealousy, killing the brightening of his mood.  
  
"Well, Dad told me to apologize, so I'm sorry for my behavior earlier."  
  
~*~*~  
  
Early Saturday afternoons were always relaxing for Isabella. Everything in her life could melt away and she could simply sit out in the simplistic beauty of the Zanga village. Sometimes Cobi sat with her and sometimes she was alone. Sometimes she wrote things down and other times she sat out empty handed. Today was one of the days she just sat and Cobi was with her, his hands gently massaging her shoulders.  
  
As always she was struggling not to feel guilty as she did whenever she was alone with either Layton or Cobi. They pretended everything was fine and that they were totally comfortable with the situation, but Isabella didn't believe them. She could feel the strain it was putting on the boys' friendship.  
  
Actually boys wasn't so accurate anymore. At eighteen, Cobi was well past being seen as an adult in his own culture and could also be recognized as such in most other societies. He acted like a young man and Layton, though only fifteen, was close at his heels.  
  
Pausing his kneading, Cobi leaned forward to attempt to kiss her neck. Isabella flinched away. Jacobi's hands fell to his sides and she could feel the confused look on his face without turning to look at him. He was so predictable when it came to this.  
  
"What's wrong, Bella-sa?"  
  
She looked over her shoulder to respond, but the angry remark caught in her throat. She just simply was sick of being in an angered mood. Besides, Cobi had done nothing to immediately incur her wrath and so she softened under his deep brown gaze and sighed, "Cobi, I have to tell you something."  
  
His eyes flashed with worry mixed with excited wonder. The Zanga prince had no idea what Isabella was going to say. In his sixteen years of knowing her he was still unable to predict her.  
  
"What is it?"  
  
She bit her lip, her gray eyes scanning his face hopefully. "We're leaving the Plateau. The Professor has figured out a way back to the outside world."  
  
Cobi felt as if a spear had just been plunged into his stomach and stretched his arms around her, pulling her closer to him. "When are you leaving me?"  
  
She winced at the pain in his voice. It wasn't "When do you leave?" or even "When are you leaving the Plateau?", it was "When are you leaving me?"  
  
"I was actually hoping you would be coming with us," she responded gently. "The Professor has room."  
  
There was a stunned silence and Bella was worried. Because he had pulled her tight against him, she could not see his face and only felt the tightening of his muscles around her.  
  
"If your parents say it's okay, I would love for you to come," she tried again.  
  
"I'm the prince, I don't need anyone's permission," he answered in a harsh whisper.  
  
Isabella tensed. "Cobi, what are you thinking?"  
  
"Would I be able to return, to come back to my people?"  
  
"There will be several return expeditions. You can come back whenever you want. I will make sure of it."  
  
There was more silence. Isabella felt her throat constricting from the emotional pressure.  
  
"If I don't go, you will automatically choose Layton. I lose by default."  
  
The previously repressed anger bubbled to the surface. She pulled away from him, facing him and standing, arms crossed over chest. "This isn't about that at all! Jacobi! I am not just a prize you and Layton are competing over. Does anything matter to you any more other than winning that damn contest? If nothing does, you are well on your way to losing! Both of you!"  
  
Cobi rose confidently, placing his arms on Bella's shoulders and holding her firmly in place when she tried to squirm.  
  
"You matter, Bella-sa. You know I love you," he assured her.  
  
"So are you coming or not?"  
  
"I'll come." He leaned in to kiss her but she ducked away.  
  
"Good. Go tell your parents. We're leaving in a few hours to go back to New London. I have church in the morning." 


End file.
